Thomas, though, was a winner on the court. The 6-1 point guard led Indiana to the 1981 NCAA championship and he willed the Detroit Pistons to a pair of NBA championships.

Regarded as one of the best point guards in basketball history, Thomas was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot in 2000.

Thomas went 0-2 against the Boilermakers in Mackey Arena, a 56-51 loss on Feb. 2, 1980 and 68-66 on Feb. 7, 1981. Thomas scored 20 points in the latter game but he committed a crucial turnover with two seconds to go.

Once his NBA career began, Thomas proved to be the atypical point guard, owning a streaking of averaging better than 20 points a game for five consecutive seasons. During that period he was voted NBA MVP in 1984 and 1986. Thomas was a 12-time NBA All-Star and selected one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.